Letters to the Editor, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017

As this article is penned, there is the suggestion of uncertainty and lack of coordination within the inner circle of the “team” surrounding the president of the United States. The direction of the nation appears to be uncertain and confused.

This muddled condition of the nation is not due to lack of trying by the president, rather it is due to the dysfunctional relations between the Democrats and Republicans and a split between that portion of the Republican Party that supports the president and the portion of the Republican Party that supports him marginally and reluctantly. This is a dysfunctional relationship at its best.

President Donald Trump must hold his position, difficult as it may be, for to give in to the pressure of “the establishment” forces will not only further muddy the swamp that is Washington but will, in fact, flood that area with the swampy condition he was elected to drain.

There is a sharp and increasingly irreversible line beginning to form between the parties and more importantly between the citizens of the United States. This separation must be directly confronted and expunged lest we fall into the trap of a permanently divided America.

R. Michael Hoy, Naples and Quincy, Mass.

Money trumps ethics

The Oct. 28 edition of The Wall Street Journal contains a story about IMG Academy, a school owned by an international talent agency and located in Bradenton. The purpose of this school is special training for gifted high school athletes. These students hope to provide their talents to top universities in the hopes of eventually cashing in on a professional career.

The big money in athletics is moving downstream.

Athletic success now is based more on genetics than any other factor. Sports announcers regularly talk about how current athletes come from families of athletes.
Mike Phelps, men’s Olympic swimming champion wears a size 14 shoe. Jenny Thompson, women’s champion, wears size 11. These people have flippers on the ends of their arms and legs. If your shoe size is 9, forget it.

Usain Bolt’s speed is genetic. Seven-foot basketball players are genetic wonders. People are born with these physical advantages. You can’t teach them.

Let’s take this avalanche of athletic money and the genetic factor in athletic success back as far as we can go. Combine the sperm and eggs of incredibly gifted athletics in a fertility clinic and athletically gifted children are the likely result. Use surrogate mothers. The corporation adopts the children at birth. These children are brought up in a special facility and trained to be top athletes, part of whose earnings will go back to the corporation which made all this possible. This could be how we will stock athletic teams in the near future.

Nothing to stop it except ethics -- usually swept aside when there is money to be made. d there is money to be made.

Bob Stabile, Bonita Springs

Return of voodoo economics

Congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump’s administration are saying they will cut taxes for all Americans. The first time we heard that was from former President Ronald Reagan in 1981. The national debt was a postwar low at that time. Reagan initiated the biggest tax cuts in history.

It wasn’t long after that the national debt began to increase out of control, so Reagan had to increase taxes 11 times over the next seven years. Instead of the money trickling down to the middle class and the poor, it trickled up to wealthy Americans.

Reagan signed into law the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982, which was probably the largest peacetime tax increase ever. Unfortunately, the middle class and the poor caught the brunt of these tax increases.

Although most Republicans claim to be fiscal conservatives, they are anything but that. Up until the administration of former President Barack Obama in 2009, Republican administrations over the last century were responsible for nearly 80 percent of all our national debt. During Reagan’s presidency, the national debt nearly tripled. The United States went from world’s largest creditor nation to the world’s largest debtor, all during his administration.

Former President George W. Bush tried the same economic plan and it didn’t work any better. Bush doubled the national debt and left Obama the Great Recession, plus two wars. Bush was also the first president to put some of his debt on a Chinese credit card.

Reaganomics: Voodoo economics (trickle down) has been tried several times in America and it has never worked for the benefit of the middle class and low-income people. As Trump has stated, he is the only one that matters.

E.L. “Bud” Ruff, Naples

Common-sense gun control

I am offering a common-sense piece of gun legislation to any lawmaker with a modicum of decency in these turbulent times.

All guns must be registered within the same framework as automobiles with annual renewal to ensure the guns are still the responsibility of the owner. The fee, like auto registration, will be borne by the owner.

There will be an amnesty period of one year for weapons that are currently unregistered, thereby giving the holder time to validate ownership.

The gun owner will be responsible for any crime committed while the gun is registered in his or her name, thereby assuring that stolen guns would be immediately reported and a sale to a private individual would be recorded properly.

All retail and gun show sales must have the proper registration papers filled out and filed at the expense of the buyer with, of course, the appropriate background checks.

Anyone caught with an unregistered gun should face some degree of felony charges and the gun confiscated and destroyed.

This should come at no cost to taxpayers.

My plan will not alleviate all gun violence by any stretch of the imagination and does not address mental illness. Since we can’t prove a negative (we will never be able to enumerate the number of lives saved), there will be those who contend that this is pointless. They should have to face the victims and explain their defense of nothing being tried.

Charles Freydberg, Naples

Ban assault weapons

A gunman with an assault rifle commits mass murder in a church in Texas and the gun lobby brings out its tired mantra "guns don't kill, people do." And from Washington, we hear "our thoughts and hearts go out to the victims, but now is not the time to talk about gun laws." If not now, when, as records for the carnage are broken almost daily?

The Second Amendment was conceived at a time when "arms" meant a muzzleloader, not an instrument of mass destruction.

We also hear from our leaders in Washington that "enough is enough," but it's not enough. Ban assault weapons and limit the size of magazines.

Jerome Shapiro, Naples

Bad votes by Florida congressmen

One thing is clear: Rep. Francis Rooney learned nothing about Christian values or caring for those less fortunate while serving as ambassador to the Vatican. If he had, how would he explain voting three times to repeal the Affordable Care Act and thereby taking medical insurance from tens of millions of individuals?

It is more understandable why he voted in favor of the House’s tax proposal. He is a multimillionaire who, like other very wealthy individuals, would benefit greatly, at the expense of middle-income workers he represents. Rooney would no longer have to worry about the alternative minimum tax or the estate tax if this plan became law.

It is more perplexing why Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart also voted to repeal the ACA and supports the Republican tax proposal. Unlike Rooney, Diaz-Balart is not rich and will not likely benefit much, if any, from the tax proposal. Maybe he’s just a lemming following his party. More likely, he’s doing it to pay back his wealthy donors. In either instance, he is not doing a good job for those who voted him into office.

Bill McMaster, Naples

Return to civil debate

Whatever happened to agreeing to disagree with others? When did it become "I and my side are right and you and your side are not only wrong but stupid or crazy or evil" as well? Our civil discourse has turned into "civility discarded."

Are debate clubs even allowed in schools or colleges anymore, or does presenting an opposing opinion violate someone's safe space and label you a hater? It used to be that both sides would argue their point and then go out and root for their home team to win. Shouldn't we all want our country to win no matter which party is in charge?

I don't know what the answer is to these problems. Maybe we each just have to look in the mirror and decide to be more open to others, then pass it on.